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War Talk

Updated March 16, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

W ednesday Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji warned the Taiwanese not to elect a president who espouses Taiwanese independence when they go to the polls Saturday. The threat was barely veiled: "Do not just act on impulse. Otherwise you will regret it very much and it will be too late to repent." The comments were just the latest move in a carefully orchestrated campaign to turn voters away from opposition candidate Chen Shui-bian, whose Democratic Progressive Party once supported independence.